Chicken Asparagus Pesto Pasta

I love asparagus!!!!  I love love love it!  It is so easy to prepare and is the perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak or a fresh baked ham.  It is a delicious addition to a frittata or, as below, a pasta dish.  Now, I’m going to get this issue out of the way immediately…a lot of freaks won’t eat asparagus because it makes their pee smell funny.  I say, “so what?”   It is pee.  You pee it out and flush it down.  Who really cares it if smells funny?  That’s like saying, “Oh, I don’t want to throw that away, it will make my garbage smell funny.”  Huh? 

My personal favorite way to prepare asparagus is simply drizzling with olive oil, sprinkling with salt and pepper, and either throwing it directly on the grill for a few minutes or into a hot 500 degree oven for a few minutes on a baking sheet.  A quick roasting will ensure a tiny bit of char, but still a nice crisp tender spear full of flavor and void of mush.   It is easy and only takes a few minutes from prep to plate.  As a side note:  If you are going to grill the asparagus, place the spears across the grate so they do not fall through. (Sorry, Mama Kat, the SOB made me do it)

Anyhow, my asparagus featured recipe for the week is Chicken Asparagus Pesto Pasta.  It is something I love, and it is pretty simple to make, but looks like it was difficult, so will impress your dinner freaks (wink wink).  Try it and let us know how you like it!  We always love to hear feedback, success and failure.

Ingredients

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 bunch asparagus (approximately ¾ - 1 pound)  *read asparagus instructions below

1 10 ounce container mushrooms, sliced

1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, blistered, * read blistering instructions below

Pesto:  Prepared or fresh.   Mama Lanette is not YOUR mama, only Alyssa JoJo’s.  Do what you want.  A handy tip for farmer’s market shoppers or gardeners, though, is that pesto freezes AMAZINGLY well.  Prepare as normal minus the cheese, spoon into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap or foil, and pop into the freezer.  When the time comes to prepare, thaw, add parmesan before serving, and laugh at those fools who pay more than 10 cents a tablespoon for pesto in the wintertime simply because they can’t think ahead (mwah hah hah!)

Parmesan cheese, shredded

Olive Oil, approximately 4 tablespoons for sautéing and blistering

Salt and pepper

½ box pasta, any shape, cooked according to package instructions.

How to prepare:  Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan on medium heat.  Add asparagus and mushrooms.  Stir to combine with olive oil, and sauté until asparagus is crisp-tender and mushrooms are softened.  The asparagus will turn bright green.  If the asparagus starts turning an avocado green, STOP!!!  You want them to be slightly crisp, not soggy.  Overcooked asparagus is yet another reason why so many people insist they do not like it, much like Brussels sprouts (see Mama Lanette’s former Brussels sprouts blog on this horrible abuse of green veggies).   

Add chicken and pesto.  Stir to combine all ingredients.  Add salt and pepper to desired taste.   Add blistered tomatoes.   Gently combine so tomatoes do not break apart.  Serve over hot pasta and top off with shredded parmesan cheese.  Yummy!!!!!  Hint:  If the finished product seems a bit dry, drizzle with some extra olive oil and stir to combine.

*Asparagus prep instructions:  Rinse asparagus well.  If you are fortunate enough to live in an area that has farmer’s market already going with fresh asparagus, this is IMPERATIVE!!!!!  Rinse and soak….rinse and soak…  A lot of sand can build up in those tasty stalks, and a few extra minutes of prepping can divert an asparapocalypse…get it, hahahaha…  Trim ends from asparagus.  Asparagus ends naturally snap at the point where they are fresh (See Alyssa JoJo’s previous blog; she has a beautiful photo demonstrating this technique.)  Proceed to cutting asparagus spears into 1 to 1-1/2 inch pieces. 

*Blistering tomatoes instructions:  Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat.  Add cherry tomatoes.  Let sit until tomatoes start sizzling, shake the pan to turn, or use a utensil.  When tomatoes start getting browned or blackened spots and become slightly wrinkled, they are finished.  Turn off burner and set tomatoes aside.  This is a very fast process.  Do NOT leave the stove to do something else.  If you don’t feel like going to the trouble of dirtying another pan or don’t feel up to the blistering technique, you can always add the tomatoes to the asparagus and mushrooms towards the end of their sautéing.  Just don’t add them at the beginning, or they will soften too much, lose their shape, and turn into a tomato sauce.   You want them to stay intact.  

Easy Peasy Mac-N-Cheesy

Easy Peasy Mac-N-Cheesy

Mama Lanette loves macaroni and cheese!  Alyssa JoJo loves macaroni and cheese! Being the homegrown Midwestern foodie freaks they are, the cheesier, the better.  Everybody loves a good homemade macaroni and cheese recipe, and this one is super easy!  Well, actually, Grandma JoyJoy doesn’t care for macaroni and cheese.  I guess it has something to do with growing up in the days when Catholics never ate meat on Fridays, (blah blah, Catholic guilt, blah, blah) not just during Lent as we are apt to do in modern times…if even then (sorry Baby Jesus!).  Even so, Mama Lanette and Alyssa JoJo did not let Grandma JoyJoy’s dislike deter them from an intense love of the Mac-N-Cheese.   Oh no!  We moved far beyond the blue box blues, with its artificial neon orange powder, and into a world of naturally-hued tangerine dreams. 

 Once you realize how easy homemade Mac-N-Cheese can be, you might just never look back.  Soon you will be adding green chilies and salsa, making it Mexican style, or adding tuna and some mushrooms to create the perfect cheesy tuna mac.  Adding a little ham, green peppers and onions is another blissful concoction that is a perfect use for leftover Easter or Christmas ham.   And, true to Mama Lanette style…it freezes beautifully!  You don’t think the SOB and I eat an entire pan of this, do you?  Oh no, my little freaks!  Mama Lanette cannot be trusted to let leftover Mac-N-Cheese sit in the fridge, the compulsive overeating disordered little gal she is.  As soon as that pan cools off, poof!  Off she goes, cutting it into “perfect for two” sized pieces, wrapping it in foil, labeling it with her hot pink Sharpie, and popping it into the freezer.  It is as delightful thawed and reheated in the oven as it is the first time around.   So here we go freaks!  Try them and let us know what you think!

Ingredients

1 pound box dried pasta.  Once again, Mama Lanette likes the fun shaped stuff, much like a small child.

1 can cheddar cheese soup

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese.  I prefer sharp cheddar, but use whatever you have on hand or prefer.  You can even go with something other than cheddar if you want to get crazy!

1-1/2 cups milk or half-and-half

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bring a large pot of water to boil and add pasta.  Cook according to package instructions.  Drain.

 

While pasta is cooking, in a large bowl, combine milk and the can of cheddar cheese soup.  Stir to combine.  Add salt and pepper if desired.  Mix in shredded cheese. 

Add drained, cooked pasta and combine gently until all ingredients are well incorporated.  Spoon mixture into a baking dish; 4 quart or cake pan size.  Top with Panko bread crumbs.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Turn oven on broil for a couple minutes if you want a nice brown top. 

Bam!  Ain’t that a nice looking pan of mac?  And YOU made it, so you can control what goes into it, and even better, what is going into the little tots’ bellies.  Use skim milk instead of whole or half-and-half if you want to cut the calories a bit.   I’m not saying this is a healthy dish, but sometimes food just tastes and feels better when you made it yourself and can attest to the ingredients.

Next week, freaks!  <3 Mama Lanette